7D With flash, Underexposed warning

I'm coming from Sony, and I just got a 7D, and the operation with the 430 EX II flash is completely different than with the sony. When I had the Sony and put the flash on and powered it up, the shutter would be locked in to 1/60, and the flash would fire accordingly, in all but shutter priority. With the new canon, I'm thinking the best mode is manual, and while I was playing with it last night, the aperture would flash in the view finder, indicating under exposure, but when I take the shot, it comes out fine. Is this a Canon thing? Will it always be flashing when I use the hot shoe flash? Maybe I'm not doing something quite right.

Yes, I have noticed this myself but the images come out fine on ETTL.

In manual mode, the meter is telling you that, under current lighting conditions (ie: without a flash, since the flash is providing no light at the moment), your picture would be underexposed with your current settings (this is true for other modes as well). When you press the release button, the flash pre-fires to measure light and then the camera takes the picture using all the info from the camera and flash to correctly expose the picture.

That is normal behavior. Of course, you could correctly expose without flash and use the flash as fill, or a myriad other settings. The meter will never read a light condition not present at the moment of reading. Or am I misunderstanding your problem?

Rafa.

I think there is a way to lock the flash exposure as well though, isn't there? The star button with the flash on camera I think but I'm not sure.

This also allows you to meter the ambient independent of the light contributed by the flash. In effect you can lighten or darken the background by the number of stops you wish using this feature.

Which feature?

If you were reply to me with what feature, live metering.

E-TTL II evaluative metering does not always come to the result I'd like, but that's true for all automated exposure. Apart from that, I think Canon's flash system is both flexible and intuitive.

But that's me, who have had Canon since the camera in the picture to the left was new.

Stamp wrote in post #11053418
I'm coming from Sony, and I just got a 7D, and the operation with the 430 EX II flash is completely different than with the sony. When I had the Sony and put the flash on and powered it up, the shutter would be locked in to 1/60, and the flash would fire accordingly, in all but shutter priority. With the new canon, I'm thinking the best mode is manual, and while I was playing with it last night, the aperture would flash in the view finder, indicating under exposure, but when I take the shot, it comes out fine. Is this a Canon thing? Will it always be flashing when I use the hot shoe flash? Maybe I'm not doing something quite right.

You might want to read EOS Flashnotes on photonotes.org for some background on the ETTL implementation in Av and M modes. However, with Custom Function 1-7, you can determine whether flash sync speed is set to 30 seconds-1/250s or 1/60-1/250s or locked at 1/250s while in Av mode.

I personally find it most convenient to use M mode when I want to lock in a particular subject exposure, but you do have options available to you.

Also, the 7d seems to expose significantly more uniformly with flash than any preceding non 1d body- especially when bouncing the flash. Riding FEC constantly is now a thing of the past.

You need to be in this section of the forum.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdis​play.php?f=35

If you want the flash to behave like the Sony put it in P (Program) mode. In Av, TV and M flash is fill light not primary.

It is fill in P mode as well, if it's bright enough around you. Just as it in M mode is whatever type of flash you want it to be.

Ok.. still a bit confused, but from what I gather, the metering won't/can't take into account the flash for proper exposure, so based on the current aperture and shutter speed settings, the flash will fire, measure, and fire again while the camera is taking the photo to get the proper exposure. Am I tracking, here? So the best mode for flexibility to shoot in with a flash is the M mode, or am I off base here?

Stamp, the metering tells you what a correct exposure (for the metering mode you have set) would be under the light that is currently reaching the camera. With that in mind, it does not incorporate the probable shooting of the flash into the reading, but the camera is aware that there is a flash and that it is set to fire.

So... if you have selected Av, it will try to expose the picture without taking into account the flash (from around 30segs to 1/250th or 1/200th), or you may tell it to use only 1/60th~1/250th, or to have the shutter fixed at 1/250th.

In Manual mode, you set the exposure (the metering assumes you won't be shooting flash for means of setting where the needle points) and, when taking the picture, the cam will instruct the flash how much power to use in order to have a correctly exposed image, with the settings you have selected (so it takes into account ISO and f). You can set the flash (depending on the model) to manual, and you have control over the amount of flash to fire, or, alternatively, you can set Flash Exposure Compensation in the camera to either reduce or increase the amount of light flashed.

Different modes (both on camera and on flash) are best suited for different situations and may be what you are after or not (also, each photographer will prefer certain methods over others). In Manual Mode, for both the camera and the flash, you have the highest degree of control, but it takes some practice to achieve good exposures. On the other hand, in Manual camera, Av, Tv, or P, the flash will try its best at exposing your image correctly (and in most modes of the preset area as well).

So, what I take it is you just need to adjust to a different information being displayed on the metering rather than anything else... the cam will behave as you expect it to, its just the metering information to the photographer that is different.

Rafa.

Just to simplify a bit.....

When using flash, ALWAYS use Manual mode in the camera, and ETTL in the flash. The flash will automatically give you the right exposure for what ever you have set on the camera. (within reason). A good starting point might be something like ISO 400, 1/125 f/5.6

In most situations the camera meter will be way off to the left, BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER! The flash will supply the right amount of light automatically.

If you want to get fancy, you can adjust ISO, shutter speed and aperture so that the meter is just a little to the left (-1 EV or -2 EV) and that will allow some of the background or "ambient" lighting to be exposed.

If you find the photo is a bit too dark or too light, just dial in a little FEC (Flash Exposure Compensation) The flash is easily fooled if there are too many dark areas in the photo, or too many light, or reflective areas.